Photo shows beautiful scenery in Shannan City. [China Tibet News/Liu Feng]

Shannan City has always put the construction of ecological civilization in a prominent position, and adhered to the road of green development.

Building green corridor along the Yarlung Zangbo River

Bianjiu, who is 60 years old, has planted trees on the bank of the Yarlung Zangbo River for 30 years and is affectionately known as "tree father" by his neighbors. Planting trees is not only his habit, but also his profession. In Chongdui Village of Dranang County, he is managing a nursery of 37 hectares. 32 species of seedlings such as economic seedlings, green seedlings, and sand seedlings are nursed, most of which will be planted along the Yarlung Zangbo River to protect the river and control the sand.

Tsering Samdrup, retired branch secretary of Samye Neighborhood Committee of Samye Town, has led the masses to plant 1,600 hectares of trees along the Yarlung Zangbo River. Up to now, the old man still plant trees every year. He believes that one day all the sand dunes along the river will become forests.

Due to special geographical environment, the wide valley belt along the Yarlung Zangbo River in Shannan section will be captured by sand if not planting trees. Since the 1980s, generations of Shannan people have made continuous efforts to plant more than 45 million trees on both sides of the river, and built a protective forest covering an area of 30,000 hectares. From Gongkar County to Sangri County, a green corridor of 160 kilometers in length with an average width of 1,800 meters has been formed.

Creating green living environment

Lhamo Yudron lives in Cuojie Village of Xasoi Town, Qonggyai County. In 2017, her family moved into a new house. In 2018, she received 20 seedlings from the county's forestry bureau, including elm, peach and apple trees. She planted them in front of and behind the house and in the fields. After good care, all the trees survived.

Dorje Droma, a nun of Nakartse County, lives in a temple at an altitude of over 4,000 meters. Everyone in the temple was given five seedlings, and the technicians taught them how to plant trees. "Before long," she said, "we'll have a little forest here."

This year, Shannan City will continue to consolidate the effect of tree planting.

Advocating tree planting activity

On March 7, more than 50 villagers of Baiqiong Village in Gyaca County planted over 200 willow seedlings.

In recent years, Shannan City has actively carried out land greening campaign, positively encouraged voluntary tree-planting, and built the only national comprehensive demonstration sand-control area in Tibet. Besides, 2 ecological counties, 57 ecological townships and 337 ecological villages at the regional level have been built. Major roads, rivers, and towns have been greened.

Only in 2018, Shannan City has completed a total of 7,067 hectares of afforestation, 2,133 hectares of closed forest and 4,467 hectares of sand control. The proportion of days with good air quality in the urban area of Zetang Town has exceeded 96%.